THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF 
RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 
IN  SEX  EDUCATION 


BY 

THOMAS  WALTON  GALLOWAY,  Ph.D. 

Associate  Director,  Department  of  Educational 
Activities,  American  Social  Hygiene  Association 


AMERICAN  SOCIAL  HYGIENE  ASSOCIATION 
Incorporated 

370  SEVENTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK  CITY 


Publication  No.  335 


To  the  Religious  Leaders  in  America: 

The  facts  and  influence  of  sex  in  life  are  too  big  to  ignore  or 
to  misunderstand,  with  safety. 

Sex  is  peculiarly  tied  up  with  the  development  of  character, 
including  the  sense  of  beauty,  honor,  chivalry,  self-control,  morals, 
and  religion.  It  may  either  degrade  or  ennoble. 

No  single  element  in  human  life  is  more  influential  upon  all 
that  the  religious  leader  is  trying  to  do.  Whether  the  influence 
proves  to  be  bad  or  good  depends  primarily  upon  education. 

Few  of  our  present  religious  leaders  have  the  expert  knowledge 
either  of  the  facts  or  of  suitable  methods  that  will  enable  them  to 
use  sex  for  constructive  character  building. 

To  get  and  to  use  these  aids  does  not  mean  more  and  harder 
work  for  the  busy  clergyman.  It  means  scientific  help  in  lifting  the 
load.  It  means  to  meet  more  effectively  and  helpfully  difficulties 
he  cannot  escape. 

Two  steps  are  now  urgent: 

1.  To  induce  present  busy  religious  leaders  to  combine  with 
their  religious  idealism  the  facts  and  methods  of  science  in  the  sound 
solution  of  the  sex  problems  of  the  community. 

2.  To  give  future  clergymen  adequate  preparation  for  this 
task  in  advance. 

In  order  to  do  this,  theological  seminaries  must  recognize  and 
assume  responsibility  for  this  special  preparation  of  religious 
leaders,  just  a,s  medical  schools  and  teachers’  colleges  must  do  for 
the  leaders  they  prepare. 

The  appeals  of  active  clergymen  can  influence  the  seminaries 
to  meet  this  responsibility^.  Will  you  not  read  this  discussion  and 
help  us  by  writing  to  your  seminary? 


Copyright,  1921,  by 

American  Social  Hygiene  Association,  Inc. 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 
IN  SEX  EDUCATION 

Appeal  from  Scientists 

A recent  conference  of  teachers,  medical  men,  and  other  social 
workers,  held  in  one  of  the  campaigns  against  prostitution  and  the 
venereal  diseases,  included  the  following  in  a general  appeal  to  our 
most  enlightened  leaders : 

“We  urge  theological  seminaries  preparing  religious  leaders  to 
recognize  the  tremendous  bearing  which  sex  has  on  every  aspect  of 
physical,  moral,  social,  spiritual,  and  religious 
The  scientists * life  and  to  take  the  necessary  practical  steps 

call  to  the  to  enable  the  future  clergy  to  use  this  great 

cler9V  endowment  of  the  human  race  intelligently  and 

constructively.” 

In  urging  this  the  conference  was  not  asking  for  new  and  sep- 
arate courses  in  seminaries  ; though  these  in  time  may  prove  to  be  nec- 
essary. It  was  not  asking  that  the  overburdened  clergyman  take  on 
new  tasks  and  responsibilities.  These  sex  influences  are  already 
among  his  most  serious  and  difficult  problems.  The  purpose  is  rather 
that  the  minister,  the  priest,  and  the  rabbi  should  receive  in  their 
preparation  a better  understanding  of  the  problems  which  they  are 
compelled  to  meet  and  a better  hope  for  solving  them. 

The  appeal  indicates  two  things:  First,  that  the  average  relig- 
ious leader  is  not  now  equipped  to  solve  effectively  the  difficulties 
presented  by  sex;  and  the  second,  that  science 
and  the  scientists  alone  cannot  reach  the  seat 
of  the  trouble.  The  appeal  is  for  a very  funda- 
mental thing: — that  all  the  idealism  of  religion 
be  added  to  the  scientific  discoveries  of  the  im- 
portant facts  underlying  sex,  and  that  both  be 
used  by  the  seminaries  in  fitting  their  students 
so  that  they  shall  not  be  unnecessarily  handicapped  in  dealing  with 
the  sex  situations  in  the  individual  soul  and  in  society. 

* An  address  delivered  before  the  Department  of  Theological  Seminaries, 
Religious  Education  Association,  Pittsburgh  convention,  1920. 


We  must  have 
the  facts  of 
science  united 
with  the  spirit  of 
religion 


[3] 

b 5*St»4 


4 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


Redemption  of  the  Idea  of  Sex  and  of  Sex  Education 


For  most  thinkers  it  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  redeem  and 
enlarge  the  conception  of  sex  education.  If  understood,  sex  cannot 
be  considered  as  a superficial  or  negligible  adjunct  of  life;  even  less 
as  a vulgar  and  discreditable  endowment.  It  is  rather  one  of  the 
most  imperious,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  constructive,  of  all  the 
factors  which  mould  life,  thought,  emotions, 
Sex  is  neither  conduct,  and  our  social  relations  and  organiza- 

negligihle  nor  tion.  If  this  is  true  our  attitude  toward  it 

unworthy  should  not  be  left  to  chance  and  to  crass 

misrepresentations  of  sex  by  those  who  would 
profiteer  in  vice  and  near-vices.  It  is  clear  that  sex  must  and  will 
play  as  large  a role  in  all  education  for  life  as  it  has  in  life  itself, 
and  yet  not  be  made  hurtfully  conspicuous. 

Furthermore,  sex  education,  so  long  minimized  even  by  con- 
structive thinkers  under  the  term  “sex  hygiene,”  does  not  consist 
of  a few  biological  and  physiological  facts  about  the  sex  organs  and 
their  uses  and  abuses,  or  the  reproductive  pro- 
cesses and  their  proper  conservation,  or  the 
pitfalls  and  perversions  of  sex,  or  about  the 
diseases  that  arise  in  connection  with  these. 
This  is  “sex  hygiene.”  Sex  education  includes, 
but  is  much  more  than,  this.  No  character 
education  can  be  normal  unless  it  consciously  and  effectively  in- 
cludes sex  at  its  actual  value.  Such  education  recognizes  and  util- 
izes the  following  elements: 

1.  Our  children  appear  as  immature,  sexed  individuals  in 
whom,  by  graded  steps,  are  unfolding  the  sex  structures  and  func- 
tions which  normally  organize  and  profoundly 
The  sex-driven  mould  and  stimulate,  first  unconsciously  but 

child  more  and  more  consciously,  their  whole  physi- 

cal development,  their  satisfactions,  their  per- 
sonal and  social  attitudes,  and  their  behavior.  Nothing  is  gained 
by  ignoring  the  normal  power  of  sex  in  the  individual. 

2.  From  the  beginning  this  developing 
Society  bewilder-  child  is  immersed  in  a complex  social  environ- 
ingly  full  of  sex  ment  built  upon  sex,  itself  strenuously,  artifi- 
cially, conscious^,  and  often  perversely  sexed, 
— a veritable  sex- jungle  to  his  inexperience.  This  sex  environment 
inevitably  attracts  and  moulds  the  child. 


Sex  education 
much  more  than 
facts:  character 
education 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


5 


3.  Human  society  has  expected  that  this  child  shall  come  in 
some  mysterious  way,  under  these  conditions  and  without  any  ade- 
quate and  systematic  enlightenment  and  guidance,  to  a sound  and 
constructive  sex  attitude  and  life. 


Unreasonable  to 
expect  child  to 
come  through  the 
jungle  clean, 
without  aid 


4.  The  movement  for  sex  education  recognizes  that  we  can- 
not reasonably  expect  this  good  result  without  the  most  high- 
spirited  and  scientifically  correct  guidance.  It  proposes  that  the 
best  brains  and  the  best  spirit  of  humanity  shall  bring  to  the  aid 
of  the  child  in  a suitably  graded  way  and  at 
every  point  of  his  uncertainty  and  need, 
whether  the  need  arises  from  his  internal  de- 
velopment or  from  the  puzzling  external  condi- 
tions, the  best  facts,  interpretations,  and  ap- 
preciations of  sex  and  the  sex  relations,  which 
the  experience  of  the  race  has  discovered.  The 
purpose  is  to  give  the  child,  through  his  whole  normal  development, 
the  best  knowledge  and  the  best  incentives  to  guide  this  wonderful 
endowment,  to  control  it,  and  to  use  it  in  such  ways  that  it  shall 
both  bring  him  to  his  highest  possible  personal  growth  and  give  him, 
as  sex  can  do,  the  richest  individual  and  social  satisfactions  known 
to  human  beings.  Futhermore,  this  mature  help  must  be  supplied 
democratically,  naturally,  and  in  a manner  which  will  give  satis- 
faction to  the  child  in  this  highest  use  of  his 
The  manner  sex  impulses.  We  cannot  safely  impose  it 

of  help  arbitrarily,  autocratically,  dogmatically,  and 

formally  in  codes,  conventions,  and  obediences 
which  are  unconvincing  and  unsatisfying  to  the  child,  and  which 
leave  morbid  stresses,  conflicts,  rebellions,  evasions,  and  complexes 
in  personality. 


The  Nature  of  Sex,  and  Its  Role  in  Life:  Illustrations 

Perhaps  at  this  point  it  is  necessary  that 
Sex  in  we  justify  some  of  the  foundations  of  this  in- 

Ufe  terpretation  of  sex.  What  is  the  biological 

role  of  reproduction  and  sex  in  life  that  would 
make  possible  such  seemingly  extreme  statements  of  their  place 
in  education? 

The  basal  fact  of  individual  life,  of  course,  is  nutrition,  which 
leads  to  self-development,  and  to  growth  and  activity.  It  is  purely 
self-concerning,  and  could  never  in  itself  lead  to  anything  beyond 


6 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


the  individual  and  his  self-aggrandizement  and  to  conflicts  between 
individuals.  Reproduction,  on  the  other  hand,  in  even  the  lowest 
organisms,  is  always  a sacrificing  division  of 
Nutrition  the  mature  organism.  It  is  a complete  reversal 

leads  to  self-  of  form,  as  compared  with  nutrition,  and  it  is 

preservation  the  earliest,  most  primitive  act  of  unselfishness 

found  in  nature.  It  is  sacrifice  of  the  indi- 
vidual for  society,  for  the  ongoing  species.  Of  course,  at  this 
earliest  level  it  can  have  no  conscious  or  moral  quality ; but  it  is  none 
the  less  the  earliest  biological  starting-point  from  which  have  evolved 
sympathy,  care,  devotion,  and  social  sense  to  be  found  in  the  human 
or  any  other  race. 


Reproduction 
and  sex  not 
self -preservative, 
but  race- 
preservative 


Sex,  on  the  contrary,  involves  a union.  It  is  the  opposite  to,  and 
the  complement  of,  reproduction.  The  union  of  two  simple  indi- 
vidual offspring  (e.  g.,  the  egg-cell  and  the 
sperm-cell)  makes  a more  effective  individual. 
In  all  the  higher  organisms,  including  man,  re- 
production and  sex,  although  just  as  opposite 
as  they  are  in  the  lower  animals,  have  become 
so  closely  associated  that  we  really  and  natu- 
rally think  of  them  as  parts  of  the  same  proc- 
ess. We  cannot  separate  fatherhood  and  motherhood  (facts  of 
reproduction)  from  mating  (a  fact  of  sex).  Indeed,  in  that  remark- 
ably valuable  human  institution,  the  home,  we  cannot  tell  just  how 
much  of  its  worth  has  arisen  from  the  sex  attractions  and  the  love 
of  husband  and  wife  and  how  much  from  the  devotions  of  parents 
and  children.  They  are  all  related  directly  to  reproduction  and  sex, 
and  are  mutually  supportive. 

Without  biological  knowledge,  we  falsely  take  a good  deal  for 
granted  about  these  life  forces  of  ours.  We  assume  that  we  are 
merely  created  male  and  female  as  to  our  bodies,  and  that  some- 
how male  and  female  spirit  and  disposition,  and  the  appropriate 
special  male  and  female  powers  of  reproduction  are  mysteriously 
and  providentially  associated  with  these  bodies.  Now,  as  a matter 
of  fact,  one  of  the  most  interesting  things  about 
How  biology  the  situation  is  that  the  individual  parental 

helps  us  to  body  is  not  created  male  or  female  at  the  out- 

understand  set,  and  does  not  impart  sex  to  the  sex  cells  it  is 

human  sex  carrying.  Eggs  do  not  come  from  a female  body 

or  sperm-cells  from  the  male  body  because  these 
bodies  are  male  and  female  respectively.  The  fact  is  almost  the 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


7 


very  opposite.  The  sex  of  the  future  sex  cells  of  a body  is  deter- 
mined at  fertilization,  when  the  new  individual  consists  of  one  cell, 
formed  by  the  union  of  egg-  and  sperm-cells  from  its  parents.  Early 
in  the  embryonic  development  of  this  new  individual,  before  there  is 
anything  about  the  body  that  gives  any  clue  to  its  future  sex , pri- 
mordial sex  cells,  with  their  male  or  female  characteristics  and  ten- 
dencies, are  placed  aside  within  the,  as  yet,  sexless  body.  The 
important  thing  about  all  this  is  that  these  primary  sex  cells,  the 
ancestors  of  all  the  sex  cells  ever  to  be  pro- 
duced in  this  body  and  in  the  bodies  of  its  de- 
scendants, have  a most  profound  effect  upon 
the  body  of  the  individual  person  in  which  they 
are  developing.  Developing  female  cells  cause 
the  body  in  which  they  are  housed  to  assume 
female  characteristics;  male  primordial  cells  produce  the  body  and 
temperament  of  the  male. 


The  sex  cells 
profoundly  in- 
fluence bodily 
growth 


These  statements  are  based  on  experiments  with  animals  in 
which  the  primitive  sex  cells  are  destroyed  or  removed  very  early  in 
life,  without  injury  to  the  body  that  contains 
them;  or  even  removed  and  grafted  in  bodies 
other  than  their  own.  Not  merely  the  gross 
bodily  characteristics  of  males  and  females  may 
thus  be  modified,  inhibited,  or  even  in  some 
cases  interchanged;  but  similar  changes  may 
come  to  the  temperamental,  emotional,  and 
functional  qualities  and  reactions.  For  example,  by  grafting  ova- 
rian tissue  from  female  into  male  animals  from  which  the  testes 
have  been  removed,  we  can  secure  from  these  male  animals  active 
behavior  and  a growth  of  structures  distinctly  female  in  character. 
We  have,  of  course,  long  been  roughly  familiar  with  these  facts 
through  the  effects  of  castration  on  our  farm  animals.  We  cannot 
experiment  quite  so  freely  with  human  beings,  but  there  are  abundant 
instances  of  surgical  operations  upon  men  and  women  which,  so  far 
as  they  go,  indicate  that  we  do  not  differ  in  this  respect  from  other 
mammals.  In  these  cases,  however,  castration  cannot  be  performed 
until  the  structures  and  functions  of  sex  in  the  body  are  already 
quite  advanced,  and  therefore  such  experiments  do  not  show  the  full 
force  of  sex  cells  in  determining  both  bodily  and  mental  qualities. 

These  facts  are  significant  because  they  show  how  the  biologi- 
cal sex  processes  within  us  have  helped  to  produce  all  those  special 
qualities  and  interrelations  of  body  and  mind  which  we  human  beings 


Changing  the 
sex  cells  will 
change  the  body 
and  the  dis- 
position 


8 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


know  and  admire  under  the  terms  “womanly”  and  “manly.”  These 
distinctive  human  endowments  of  the  man  or  woman  come  to  each 
of  us  individually,  not  through  some  mystical 
We  owe  a providential  prearrangement,  but  because  of 

great  debt  his  biological  sex  inheritance.  An  enumeration 

to  sex  of  some  of  these  sex-determined  facts  of  indi- 

vidual and  social  life  may  help  us  appreciate 
the  debt  we  owe  to  our  sex.  Sex  gives  us  all  the  innate  bodily, 
mental,  and  spiritual  differences  between  males  and  females;  all  the 
distinctive  sex  tastes  and  tendencies  of  males  and  females ; all  the 
mutual  attractions  that  exist  between  them  be- 
Its  gifts  cause  of  these  differences;  love  and  courtship; 

marriage  and  the  love  of  mates ; fatherhood  and 
motherhood ; sons  and  daughters,  brothers  and  sisters ; the  devo- 
tions and  sacrifices  of  parents  for  children  and  of  children  for  par- 
ents ; the  home  and  its  motives,  satisfactions,  ideals,  and  the  mental 
and  spiritual  associations  and  refinements  connected  with  the  home. 
Less  obviously,  but  no  less  really,  all  the  motives,  attitudes,  and 
institutions  which  this  home  projects  into  society  at  large  are 
inspired  and  modified  profoundly  by  sex  and  its  products.  To  be 
sure,  other  elements  enter,  but  none  is  more  important. 

Furthermore,  sex  attraction  is  biologically  the  first  and  most 
basal  form  of  social  attraction.  This  primary  attraction  furnished 
the  first  forms  of  appreciations  of  attractiveness  in  any  species  of 
animal.  Such  appreciation  is  the  beginning  of  the  esthetic  possi- 
bilities. Hence  both  the  esthetic  sense  in 
Sex  under-  general,  and  the  standards  of  beauty  and  at- 

lies  our  sense  tractiveness  in  particular,  first  arose  in  the 

of  beauty  evolution  of  life  about  sex  relations.  As  a mat- 

ter of  fact,  both  the  sense  of  beauty  and  the 
standards  of  beauty  still  linger  very  strongly  about  phenomena  in 
which  sex  plays  a large  part.  We  know,  for  example,  how  being  in 
love  heightens  and  stimulates  all  the  esthetic  appreciations,  as  of 
poetry,  art,  nature,  etc.,  as  well  as  of  the  loved  object.  The  higher 
applications  of  this  sex-derived  sense  of  attraction  and  of  beauty 
(supplemented,  to  be  sure,  at  other  points)  to  more  abstract  and 
spiritual  ideas  and  relations, — such  valuable  and  inspiring  ideas  as 
the  beauty  of  justice,  honor,  righteousness,  moral  fineness, — are 
made  possible  because  of  these  more  simple  esthetic  beginnings. 

Similarly,  the  sympathy  that  is  the  necessary  basis  of  human 
society  and  of  such  poor  approach  as  we  have  made  to  human 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


9 


brotherhood  has  its  origin  in  the  family  and  its  brotherhood.  The 
first  steps  and  satisfactions  in  any  moral  standards  of  service,  sac- 
rifice, and  social  consecration  arise  in  these 
home  relations.  As  we  have  seen,  the  home  is 
inspired  and  enriched  by  the  refinements  of  sex 
and  reproduction.  This  is  coming  very  close 
to  the  social  aspects  of  religion.  This  connec- 
tion between  sex  and  religion  is  further  illus- 
trated, too,  by  the  fact  that  religion,  histori- 
cally, has  in  many  stages  of  human  development  been  very  closely 
intertwined  with  sexual  observances;  and,  equally,  the  religious 
development  of  every  individual  is  deeply  dependent,  as  one  of  its 
roots,  upon  his  personal  stage  of  sexual  development.  The  most 
inspiring  conception  we  have  of  God,  as  head  of 
These  elements  the  universe,  is  as  “Father” ; and  his  most  con- 

minister  greatly  structive  quality  is  “love.”  Both  concepts  are 
to  religion  natively  sex  terms,  and  their  richest  present 

meanings  derive  from  sex.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  all  forms  of  human  affection  started  biologically  in 
reproduction  and  sex,  and  have  been  enriched  from  the  same  source 
at  many  later  stages. 


Sympathy  and 
companionship 
first  arose  about 
reproduction 
and  sex 


The  Corollaries  for  the  Clergyman 


The  clergyman 
meets  the  sex 
problem  at  every 
turn 


The  above  considerations  touch  in  a practical  way  every  worth- 
while human  emotion  and  relation  that  the  religious  leader  must  meet 
and  conserve  in  his  work  for  spiritual  as  against 
material,  and  social  as  against  selfish,  values. 
He  cannot  dodge  these  sex-inspired  issues  if  he 
would.  There  is  no  way  whereby  he  can  meet 
them  effectively  except  by  adequate  knowledge 
of  the  biology  and  psychology  of  sex,  as 
applied  to  individual  and  social  development  and  relations. 

The  minister  must  therefore  understand  the  meaning  of  sex  in 
human  life.  This  is  not  to  him  academic.  It  is  most  practical.  It 
is  not  an  added  task ; it  is  rather  an  aid  to  him 
in  his  inevitable  task  of  character  building.  He 
must  help  in  positive  sex  education  of  humanity 
because  sex  is  one  of  the  chief  springs  of 
character.  By  sex  education  we  mean  the  sci- 
entific and  sympathetic  use,  for  the  guidance 
of  our  youth,  of  all  we  have  discovered  of  our  best  human  goals  and 


Sex  education 
will  make  the 
clergyman’s  task 


easier 


10 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


of  the  contributions  which  sex  and  the  motives  associated  with  it 
may  make  to  our  success  and  happiness  in  reaching  these  goals. 
We  mean  that  all  we  know  shall  be  brought  to  our  youth  in  such 
a way  that  his  native  impulses,  tendencies,  and  appetites,  and  his 
acquired  habits,  desires,  ideas,  satisfactions, 
What  does  sex  standards,  ideals,  attitudes,  motives,  and  pur- 

education  mean ? poses  shall  be  wisely  nurtured  from  birth;  that 

his  normal  sex  choices  and  behavior  shall 
adjust  him  to  the  best  social  needs  and  shall  equally  minister  to  his 
own  poise  and  happiness.  It  is  not  enough  that  his  sex  attitude 
should  lead  him  unhappily  to  such  practices  as  will  advance  society, 
nor,  on  the  other  hand,  with  pleasure  to  reactions  which  are  socially 
disastrous.  The  highest  function  of  social  and  moral  pedagogy  is 
to  adjust,  convincingly  to  the  individual,  these  two  partially  con- 
flicting goals  of  individual  and  social  good.  There  is  no  point  where 
the  task  is  so  difficult  as  in  sex  adjustments. 


The  Concern  of  the  Religious  Leader 


Religious  educators  owe  it  to  their  position  of  peculiar  advan- 
tage to  fit  themselves  to  approach  this  task  in  a scientific  spirit. 
Their  concern  rests  not  primarily  in  the  danger,  through  sex  per- 
versions, to  the  society  we  believe  in  and  to  personality  that  we  are 
culturing,  although  this  is  of  great  moment.  It  is  rather  in  the 
fact,  developed  above,  that  we  are  dealing  here  with  one  of  the  most 
fundamental,  pervasive,  powerful,  and  moulding  emotions  in  all  life. 
Sex  in  human  life  is  very  much  more  a question  of  health  than  of 
disease;  more  a matter  of  psychology  than  of  biology;  and  much 
more  a question  of  emotional  than  of  intellectual  psychology. 

Religious  teachers  have  rightly  insisted  that 
religion  also  is  very  largely  a matter  of  emo- 
tional culture;  that  it  should  be  thought  of 
even  more  as  a matter  of  the  “heart”  than  of 
the  “head.”  While  these  facts  again  connect 
sex  and  religion  in  education,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  emo- 
tions, while  complex,  long  neglected  by  scientists,  and  ill  under- 
stood, are  not  supernatural  nor  lawless  elements  in  personality  either 
in  sex  or  religion.  They  are  capable  of  being  analyzed,  of  being 
modified,  of  being  educated. 

For  example,  the  Freudian  psychologists  have,  by  very  keen  and 
ingenious  experiments,  made  clear  to  us  how  certain  unwholesome 
internal  sex  emotions,  attitudes,  and  behavior  have  been  fixed  in 


Emotional 
elements  in  sex 
and  in  religion 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


11 


individuals  through  apparently  commonplace  early  relations  and 
emotional  experiences  in  the  home  and  elsewhere.  Indeed,  these 
students  claim  that  our  whole  mature  approach  to  the  sex  life  of  the 
child  is  so  unscientific  that  we  regularly  and  normally  produce 
thereby  unsound,  perverse,  and  even  pathological  emotional  stresses 
in  personality,  which  humanly  speaking  are 
The  emotions  much  more  serious  than  the  venereal  diseases. 

can  he  educated  We  may  not  agree  with  this,  but  it  is  a sober- 

ing suggestion.  There  are  two  most  hopeful 
results  of  the  psychoanalytic  studies  of  Freud  and  his  followers : 
(1)  that  the  emotional  life  is  capable,  even  by  way  of  its  morbid 
states,  of  scientific  analysis  and  detailed  study,  and  (2)  that  these 
emotional  states  which  are  the  springs  of  choice  are  highly  modi- 
fiable by  natural  external  influences ; that  is  to  say,  they  can 
be  educated. 

The  religious  leader  is  greatly  interested  in  this  emotional 
parallelism  between  sex  and  religion  because  we  must  depend  in  great 
measure  on  the  powerful  motives  and  emotions 
Religion  and  of  religion,  themselves  in  part  sublimations  of 

the  sublimation  sex  motives,  to  aid  the  individual  to  deal 

of  sex  wisely  with  his  sex  emotions  and  conduct. 

Rightly  used,  the  religious  motive  is  of  great 
value  here.  Wrongly  used,  religion  can  be  as  harmfully  and  crimi- 
nally employed  against  the  growing  child  as  any  other  misused  social 
and  emotional  instrument. 

The  psychology  of  repression,  substitution,  and  sublimation  of 
desires  and  satisfactions,  which  for  reasons  of  space  cannot  be 
treated  here,  must  be  in  the  possession  of  one  who  would  intelli- 
gently and  constructively  develop  the  full  emotional  religious  life 
of  young  people  with  sex  as  an  ally  and  not  an  enemy.  We  need 
to  find  how  to  get  the  positive  contributions  of  both  religion  and 
sex  without  their  very  numerous  and  real  possible  perversions. 

The  Role  of  Childhood  and  Youth  in  Sex  Education 

John  Fiske  and  others  have  called  our  attention  to  the  great 
significance  of  infancy,  home,  and  parental  care,  in  the  evolution 
of  human  society  and  of  social  sentiments.  Many  have  emphasized, 
possibly  overestimated  the  degree  to  which  youth  is  unformed  and 
plastic.  There  is  still  another  factor  in  connection  with  the  sex 
development  of  youth  and  the  social,  esthetic,  and  spiritual  offshoots 
of  it,  which  seems  to  furnish  a peculiar  educational  opportunity. 


12 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


Individual  sex 
interest  and 
knowledge  outrun 
actual  sex 
development 


Because  of  the  fact  that  society  is  a relation  in  which  sex  has 
so  large  an  organizing  part,  and  the  home  into  which  the  child  is 
born  is  frankly  and  peculiarly  animated  by 
sex;  and  because  the  child’s  intellectual  curi- 
osity and  his  ability  of  at  least  partial  under- 
standing develop  more  rapidly  than  his  own 
biological  sex  nature,  we  have  a precocious 
stage  of  emotional  and  intellectual  sex  develop- 
ment, interest,  and  opportunity,  a period  in 
which  the  child’s  mental  states  are  ahead  of  the  physical.  On  one 
hand  this  situation  stimulates  to  premature  sex  experiment  and 
perversion,  and  is  responsible  for  the  power  and  volume  of  the 
stream  of  crude  sex-guesses  and  incitements  which  pass  continu- 
ously and  vulgarly  from  older  to  younger 
Hence , possi-  children.  Of  course,  this  is  complicated  fur- 

bilities  of  ther  by  the  more  conscious  vulgarities  of  older 

perversions  and  often  subnormal  and  degenerate  people 

who  mislead  and  pervert  children.  So  preva- 
lent is  this  that  the  chances  are  very  slight  for  boys  and  girls  to 
come  to  maturity  without  these  perversely  sophisticated  interpre- 
tations of  sex  marring  their  lives. 

The  other  side,  much  less  consciously  appreciated  by  us,  is 
this:  This  precocious  interest,  both  intellectual  and  emotional,  fur- 
nishes the  very  best  possible  opportunity  to 
Also  makes  anticipate  each  actual  need  coming  to  the  child 

possible  moral  with  the  gradual  onset  of  sex.  Because  of  the 

prophylaxis  mental  forwardness,  we  are  able  to  give  emo- 

tional motives  and  intellectual  appreciations  in 
advance  of  the  appetite,  both  in  time  and  quality,  and  thus,  con- 
tinually and  pedagogically,  to  establish  attitudes  which  will  tend  to 
preempt  the  ground  and  fortify  for  the  need  ahead  of  its  coming. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  hopeful  elements  in  our  problem.  It  fur- 
nishes the  very  machinery  for  substitution  of  the  higher  for  the 
lower  sex  motives,  and  for  refining  the  ideals  and  attitudes  toward 
the  whole  matter  of  sex  satisfactions.  It  is  essentially  an  ideal 
opportunity  for  prophylactic  and  tonic  treat- 
ment to  give  constructive  immunity  through 
mastery,  rather  than  to  rely  upon  curative 
treatment  during  or  after  the  onset  of  the  sex 
urge.  It  contributes  the  very  essence  of  our 
opportunity  to  bring  our  best  social  discoveries  to  the  youth  as 


This  is  the  heart 
of  character 
education 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


13 


incentives  for  individual  mastery  by  giving  such  a satisfying  and 
convincing  forward  look  as  will  remove  from  self-control  its  morbid 
tensions.  It  furnishes  the  one  hope  of  a really  democratic  transfer 
of  social  experience  and  ideals  about  sex. 


Sex  education 
chiefly  in 
schools  thus  far 


The  Sex  Education  Movement 

Those  who  have  followed  the  movement  for  sex  education  know 
that  up  to  very  recent  times,  except  for  much  sporadic  individual 
writing  and  speaking,  only  three  fields  have 
been  cultivated  with  any  degree  of  system. 
These  are  (1)  the  students  of  college  and  uni- 
versity grade,  originally  largely  through  the 
influence  of  the  two  Christian  Associations ; 
(£)  some  high  schools,  through  the  instrumentality  of  teachers  of 
biology  or  kindred  subjects.  (Latterly  this  work  in  high  schools  is 
being  fostered  by  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service  and  by 
state  boards  of  health,  largely  in  a campaign  to  limit  venereal  dis- 
eases and  prostitution.  This  is  being  made  more  constructive  by 
positive  emphasis  on  health,  physical  fitness  and  in  some  degree  on 
moral  ideals.)  ; and  (3)  emergency  educational  work  for  the  Ameri- 
can soldiers  during  the  war.  These  steps  have  all  been  taken  because 
these  were  the  lines  of  least  resistance  and  of  immediate  promise. 

In  very  large  degree  this  work  has  been  temporary,  exotic,  and 
superficial;  and  has  been  so  recognized  by  those  engaged  in  it.  It 
has  been  done  chiefly  by  outside  lecturers  who 
have  tried,  in  a visit  of  a few  days  only,  to 
give  the  information,  interpretation,  and  in- 
spiration which  must  be  joined  in  such  work. 
In  relatively  few  institutions  has  it  been  taken 
over  and  consistently  developed  as  an  integral  part  of  the  all-school 
duty.  This  was  a preliminary  and  an  inevitable  condition;  but  it 
cannot  furnish  the  permanent  solution. 

Furthermore,  when  the  colleges  take  care  of  this  work  from  the 
inside,  as  they  must,  this  will  help  only  a small  part  of  our  popu- 
lation; and  this  instruction  comes  too  late  for 
the  students  to  do  more  than  to  reorient  their 
lives  to  the  problem.  Its  chief  value  looks 
toward  their  own  later  service  as  parents  and 
leaders.  Similarly,  even  if  the  high  school 
comes  to  give  adequate  sex  instruction  to  its 
pupils,  it  must  be  remembered  that  not  more  than  fifteen  per  cent  of 


Must  become  an 
integral  part 
of  school  task 


Even  more 
needed  by  em- 
ployed young 
people 


14 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


the  young  people  of  high-school  age  are  in  high  school.  This  age, 
furthermore,  is  one  of  peculiarly  strong  sex  activity  and  sex  tempta- 
tions, which,  coupled  with  poor  or  vicious  information,  make  it 
extremely  difficult  for  the  boy  to  come  through  safely.  Only  ideals 
and  attitudes  formed  before  this  period  can  effectively  satisfy  him 
and  guide  him  during  its  stresses. 

No  one,  therefore,  who  analyzes  the  whole  situation  with  thor- 
oughness and  with  a bias  toward  education  can  escape  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  crucial  educational  work  must  be  done  before  the 
strong  sex  urges  and  opportunities  of  the  high-school  period.  Of 
course  all  our  social  efforts  to  help  boys  and 
High  school  girls  must  be  continued  and  even  redoubled 

too  late  through  this  whole  high-school  and  college 

period;  but  the  effectiveness  of  even  these 
efforts  will  be  determined  very  largely  by  the  attitudes  already 
gained  through  education  before  that  time. 


Sex  Education  as  a Community  Task 

Futher  analysis  must  convince  us,  even  if  the  high  school  should 
do  its  duty  thoroughly  for  its  own  pupils,  that  sex  education  for 
the  pre-school  age,  the  pre-adolescent  school 
Sex  guidance  period,  the  pubertal  period  of  the  late  grades, 

of  youth  is  a and  for  youth  of  high-school  age  in  industry, 

community  is  an  all-community  task.  These  are  the  great 

responsibility  bulk  of  our  immature  population.  This  means 

that  the  brains  and  the  spirit,  the  science  and 
idealism  of  each  community  must  give  themselves  to  the  task  of 
preparing  and  coordinating  every  agency  in  the  community  to  the 
end  that  it  will  make  its  proper  contribution  soundly,  intelligently, 
elastically,  pedagogically  in  such  a way  as  to  get  these  right  emo- 
tional states  and  ideas  and  attitudes  and  behavior  in  and  from  all 
normal  young  people.  This  involves  the  preparation  of  parents,  and 
homes,  kindergartens,  grade  schools,  Sunday  schools  and  churches, 
all  workers  in  organizations  for  boys  and  girls,  lodges,  physicians, 
women’s  clubs, — indeed,  of  all  groups  concerned  with  children  in  any 
way, — to  make  their  full  contribution,  whether 
This  means  of  information  or  of  attitude,  in  the  most  up- 

cooperation  of  building  fashion.  It  is  essential  that  these 

all  agencies  instrumentalities  shall  be  coordinated  as  to 

their  ideas  and  objectives,  and  not  work  at 
cross-purposes  for  partial  and  even  contradictory  objects. 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


15 


Material  Health  and  Efficiency  Plus  Moral  Ideals 

There  is  no  question  that  the  fight  being  organized  by  scientific 
medical  men  against  the  venereal  diseases  must  be  pushed  with 
splendid  energy.  This  is  going  to  be  coupled 
Movement  with  inspiring  pleas  for  health  of  mind  and 

against  diseases  body  for  the  sake  of  efficiency.  In  spots  there 
will  be  emphasis  upon  the  social,  moral,  emo- 
tional, and  character  side  of  the  matter.  The  movement  is  going 
to  succeed  within  its  limits.  It  would,  however,  be  a most  humiliat- 
ing thing  to  all  religious  idealists,  if,  in  this  twentieth  century  such 
a movement  should  be  allowed  to  be  limited  to  a mere  campaign 
for  material  health  and  efficiency.  It  is  going  to  be  the  privilege 
of  the  church  of  the  next  twenty  years  to  determine  whether  this 
shall  really  be  a characterful  movement,  in- 
Must  be  a move-  formed  with  even  religious  objectives.  This 
ment  for  char - cannot  be  done  by  merely  pious  well-wishers 

acter  as  well  and  moralizers  in  the  church  or  out.  It  can  be 

done  only  when  the  clergyman  and  other  moral 
and  religious  teachers  shall  have  a mastery  of  the  biological,  psycho- 
logical, pedagogical,  and  sociological  facts  of  sex  and  their  interpre- 
tation, as  a background  of  their  equipment  for  normal  moral  and 
religious  education  of  youth;  and  equally  by  insuring  that  our  sci- 
entific physicians  shall  really  assimilate  and 
apply  the  moral  and  social  implications  of 
their  science.  These  two  groups  of  human 
workers  can,  by  a full  combination  of  their 
magnified  fields  and  a full  use  of  all  other  so- 
cial agencies,  and  working  with  the  method  of 
the  true  teacher,  guide  humanity  in  the  solu- 
tion of  its  sex  education.  Neither  science 
alone  nor  the  idealism  of  religion  alone  can  possibly  solve  the 
problem. 

The  Consequent  Duty  Resting  on  Professional  Schools 
It  is  quite  obvious  that  a busy  physician  or  a busy  clergyman 
cannot  readily  pick  up  these  necessary  parts  of  his  equipment  for 
this  task,  merely  as  an  incident  in  the  day’s 
Preparation  work.  Each  will  be  inclined  rather  to  shun  his 

responsibility.  The  too  obvious  handicaps  of 
both  are  due  largely  to  an  inadequate  point  of  view  in  the  teaching 
in  the  professional  schools.  For  example,  when  he  leaves  the  medi- 


Combine  ideals 
of  religion 
the  facts  of 
science,  and  the 
method  of  the 
teacher 


16 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


cal  school  the  ordinary  physician  has  not  merely  not  been  fitted  to 
use  his  unique  opportunity  of  leadership  to  present  the  big  human 
aspects  of  sex  to  youth,  but  ordinarily  he  is 
Medical  schools  made  particularly  unfit  to  do  so  by  the  very 

signally  failing  manner  and  matter  of  instruction  which  he  re- 

ceives there.  For  the  most  part  he  has  been 
instructed  only  in  the  anatomy,  physiology,  and  pathology  of  the 
subject,  and  with  a levity  and  neglect  of  the  whole  biology  and  psy- 
chology of  it  that  is  utterly  and  dangerously  unscientific  and  well- 
nigh  destroys  his  rightful  opportunity  of  social  service  and 
leadership. 

In  exactly  analogous  ignorance  and  perhaps  in  even  greater 
degree,  the  average  young  clergyman  goes  to  his  peculiarly  strategic 
position  entirely  unfitted  to  make  his  spiritual  and  ideal  aspirations 
on  this  subject  effective  in  the  practical  training  of  the  young 
people  of  his  church  and  community.  He  can 
Vital  omission  be  prepared  to  do  more  easily  the  thing  he  now 

in  seminaries  tries  to  ignore  or  does  with  great  difficulty. 

Here  again  much  of  the  fault  lies  with  his 
training  schools.  The  school  both  selects  the  subjects  to  which  he 
shall  give  his  thought  during  his  course,  and  even  more  it  gives  the 
bias  and  sense  of  values  which  will  largely  determine  his  emphasis 
in  community  leadership ; and  in  it  all,  this  mainspring  of  human 
character  is  given  the  most  casual  or  no  attention.  There  are  whole 
courses  common  to  theological  seminaries  which  for  fundamental 
Christian  and  social  ends  could  better  be  omitted  than  the  study  and 
training  which  would  fit  the  minister  for  sound  leadership  in  the 
right  education  of  the  two  great  native  impulses  of  greed  for  pos- 
sessions and  sex , in  the  young  people  of  his  community.  The  wrong 
use  of  these  two  impulses  presents  the  greatest  barrier  both  to 
democracy  and  to  Christianity  which  we  now  know.  In  most  cases 
the  needed  help  could  be  given  without  any  serious  omissions  and 
without  extensive  new  courses.  Most  schools  have  several  courses 
which  could  be  enlarged  so  as  to  meet  the  conditions. 

Sex  Problems  Which  Should  be  Considered  in  Seminary  Courses 

In  conclusion  may  I merely  mention,  with  no  discussion,  some 
of  the  more  acute  questions  demanding  intelligent  answer  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  future  of  human  society,  with  the  general  significance  of 
which  the  modern  minister  must  be  familiar  if  he  is  to  be  a moral 
and  religious  leader  for  his  community,  or  even  lead  his  own  church 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


17 


and  Sunday  school  to  contribute  anything  to  their  solution.  The 
seminary  is  the  institution  which  can  best  serve  him  in  this  connec- 
tion. These  questions  only  illustrate  the  field.  They  by  no  means 
exhaust  it.  In  proposing  them  there  is  no  pur- 
pose to  imply  that  any  one  now  has  complete 
or  final  answers  to  them.  The  implication  is 
again  that  the  answers  cannot  be  found  by 
materially-minded  men  of  science  alone.  Un- 
less idealistic  and  socially-minded  people  actu- 
ally help  to  find  scientific  answers  to  them  we  are  in  danger  of  an 
abdication  of  interest  which  may  easily  be  fatal  for  all  time  to  a 
moral  solution  of  the  sex  impulse  in  human  society.  Some  of  these 
problems  are: 


Solutions  of  the 
sex  problem 
must  not  be  left 
to  materialists 


Some  conditions 
and  questions  of 
vital  importance 
to  the  religious 
leader 


The  biological  place  of  appetites  in  life  as 
a basis  for  understanding  their  relation  to  morals. 
The  normal  instincts  and  impulses  connected  with 
these.  The  place  of  pleasure  and  satisfactions 
in  these  organic  adaptations.  The  effects  of  hu- 
man consciousness,  memory,  and  imagination  upon 
sex,  and  other  basal  appetites.  Biological  foun- 
dations for  social  ethics  and  morals. 

The  main  steps  in  the  normal  biological  development  of  sex  in  the 
boy  and  girl.  Some  of  the  more  frequent  and  limiting  congenital  ab- 
normalities of  physical  sex  development,  and  the  results  of  these  in  char- 
acter and  conduct.  The  ages  at  which  the  various  phases  of  physical 
sex  development  show  their  influence  upon  the  emotional  and  desire  life 
of  the  child;  and  the  normal  and  abnormal  forms  which  these  emo- 
tional aspects  take  at  different  periods, — as  auto-eroticism,  homosexual- 
ity, heterosexuality.  The  practical  bearing  of  these  upon  all  character 
education  of  youth. 

The  modification  which  our  highly  artificial,  mature  social  organi- 
zation and  conventions,  customs,  and  taboos  work  in  these  natural  emo- 
tional states  of  the  young.  Particularly  how  the  home  life  and  connec- 
tions influence  the  inner  sex  and  emotional  life  of  the  child,  through  the 
unconscious  images  and  complexes  that  are  built  up.  The  perversions 
of  juvenile  sex  life  and  thought;  their  causes,  prevention,  and  remedy. 

The  natural  and  the  artificial  connections  between  the  sex  impulses 
and  the  other  desirable  and  undesirable  impulses  of  life. 

The  normal  goals  that  we  should  consciously  strive  for  in  the  sex 
development  of  the  youth  at  the  principal  periods  of  his  life.  That  is, 
what  should  be  accomplished  in  the  way  of  information  and  in  the  emo- 
tional attitude  before  the  child  starts  to  school?  In  the  pre-adolescent 
age?  Early  adolescent  age? 


18 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


What  types  of  knowledge  are  most  serviceable  to  the  child  in  respect 
to  sex,  etc.?  How  graded  to  meet  the  development  of  the  child?  Rela- 
tive value  of  knowledge  and  other  educative  factors  in  influencing  sex  y 

growth  and  sex  choices.  Kind  of  motives  most  favorable  for  use  at  the 
various  stages  of  personal  development  in  securing  convinced  and  satis- 
fying control  and  guidance  of  the  sex  impulses  for  constructive  service  t 

to  personality, — rather  than  the  too  probable,  but  unnecessary,  opposites 
of  lack  of  control  on  the  one  hand,  or  grudging  and  unsatisfactory  re- 
pression on  the  other. 

The  necessary  changes  in  our  method  as  youth  progresses,  in  devel- 
oping and  emphasizing  those  motives  that  secure  control.  That  is,  how 
in  respect  to  method  can  we  best  get  the  appropriate  motives  into  healthy 
operation  in  youth  at  different  ages?  And  of  different  temperament? 

When  repression  is  necessary;  and  how  can  we  secure  repression  of 
desires  into  unconsciousness  in  such  a way  as  to  injure  personality  least? 

How  may  we  best  substitute  other  motives  and  interests  for  those  of 
sex?  What  limitations  are  there  on  this  process?  How  can  we  best 
sublimate  the  sex  desires  and  satisfactions  from  their  cruder  to  their 
more  social  and  constructively  emotional  forms? 

How  can  we  make  most  healthful  use  of  the  social  and  moral  stand- 
ard which  the  race  has  found  pragmatic  and  has  adopted,  in  such  a way 
as  to  help  the  youth  without  hurtful  repressions?  In  other  words,  how  ^ 

can  we  transfer  our  racial  experience  and  thought  so  democratically  and 
convincingly  that  the  youth  will  build  up  within  himself  a personal 
mechanism  that  knows,  desires,  has  the  habit  of,  and  is  satisfied  with, 
sound  behavior,  rather  than  obey  or  revolt  against  an  ancient  morality 
imposed  autocratically  and  externally.  Is  it  a concern  of  the  church 
to  secure  such  internal,  vital  morality  rather  than  obedience  to  conven- 
tions, regulations,  commandments,  and  taboos?  How  can  we  really  put 
its  machinery  back  of  such  improved  methods? 

In  this  task  of  giving  our  boys  and  girls  a fair  chance  with  their 
sex  development, — not  merely  in  conduct  but  in  internal  greatness, — 
what  can  we  do  for  the  monogamous  home,  to  make  it  more  effective 
and  comfortable  and  educative  psychologically,  as  it  is  satisfying  biolog- 
ically? Is  the  future  of  the  home  assured?  On  what  grounds  is  it 
failing?  Is  it  the  best  possible  social  solution  of  the  sex  relation?  If 
so,  on  what  grounds?  Isn’t  it  necessary  to  make  these  grounds  even 
more  effective?  Isn’t  it  both  possible  and  morally  encumbent  upon  us 
to  provide  saner  preparatory  education  for  both  boys  and  girls  in  the 
interest  of  better  homes?  Where  is  this  to  be  done  accurately  and  in 
the  finest  spirit?  * 

What  are  the  fundamental  grounds  for  a single  standard  of  sex 
morals  for  both  men  and  women?  Is  definite  education  for  this  a church 
concern?  What  are  the  most  effective  motives  to  use  at  the  various  ^ 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


19 


stages  of  a boy’s  life  to  develop  a permanently  right  attitude  on  the 
question?  How  best  can  the  sex  development  and  satisfaction  of  those 
men  and  women  who  never  marry  be  met?  Have  we  no  general  social 
obligation  to  such  people? 

What  is  the  role  of  the  literature  of  life, — biography,  fiction,  poetry, 
etc.,— in  establishing  right  ideals  and  attitudes  with  respect  to  sex? 
Do  the  solution  and  application  of  this  question  of  literature  to  sex 
belong  to  the  schools  alone? 

What  are  the  moral  and  religious  springs  in  character  most  closely 
connected  with  sex  development?  What  positive  use  of  the  sex  nature 
and  impulses  can  effectively  be  made  to  advance  morals  and  religion  at 
the  various  periods?  Conversely,  what  moral  and  religious  incentives 
can  be  used  to  advantage  and  how,  at  the  different  ages,  to  guide  and 
refine  sex  desires,  attitudes,  and  ideals  without  unwholesome  reaction 
either  to  sex  choices  or  to  the  religious  nature? 

What  part  ought  we  to  expect  the  church  and  its  Sunday  schools 
to  take  directly  in  organizing  and  guiding  intelligently  its  children  and 
youth  in  respect  to  sex  attitudes  and  behavior?  What  are  their  best 
approaches  to  the  subject?  What  topics  can  they  best  use?  What  can 
the  church  and  Sunday  schools  do  to  prepare  present  parents  to  do<  for 
their  own  children  in  this  field  what  parents  alone  can  do? 

If  communities  should  move  to  take  adequate  care  of  sex  education, 
what  part  should  ministers  and  churches  take  in  such  a community  move- 
ment ? 

Conclusion  x 

The  conventional  answer  of  many  religious  people  to  all  such 
pleas  for  knowledge  and  science  is  a series  of  generalized  statements 
that  beg  the  whole  question  and  get  us  nowhere.  They  run  some- 
thing like  this : “If  the  minister  preaches  the  gospel,  these  things 
will  all  fall  into  their  proper  places”;  or,  “Nothing  can  solve  these 
human  problems  but  a new  spiritual  birth”;  or  “Belief  in  and  ac- 
ceptance of  Christ  will  make  unnecessary  special  knowledge  of  the 
biology  or  pedagogy  of  sex”;  or  “We  need 
grace  rather  than  pedagogy.”  In  the  super- 
ficial way  in  which  many  teachers  of  religion 
use  such  expressions,  they  are  mere  sleight-of- 
heart  efforts  to  get  something  for  nothing. 
Those  using  them  in  this  spirit  give  little  evi- 
dence of  having  solved  the  essential  problems 
of  sex  or  of  any  of  the  other  powerful  impulses  that  furnish  the  raw 
material  for  character. 

To  be  sure,  we  may  read  into  such  expressions  our  whole  knowl- 


Pious  religious 
generalities  will 
not  solve  the 
problems  of  sex 
in  life 


3 0112  061892037 


20 


THE  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS 


edge  and  appreciation  of  these  fundamental  and  vital  special  prob- 
lems,— all  that  is  asked  in  this  paper.  But  if  we  have  no  such 
exact  knowledge,  then  these  formulae  are  merely  an  empty  cover- 
ing to  our  ignorance.  They  are  the  essence  of  quackery.  Let  us 
not  use  them  as  a shoddy  substitute  for  truth  and  understanding. 
That  way  lies  ruin  no  less  than  in  following  blindly  the  material 
scientist.  These  have  no  more  value  than  any  other  catch-words. 
They  may  include  the  sex  impulses,  relations,  and  problems,  as  the 
whole  includes  the  parts.  But  our  knowledge  of  the  meanings  of 
any  such  whole  can  be  no  greater  than  the  sum  of  our  exact  appre- 
ciations of  all  the  parts.  We  merely  cheat  ourselves  when  we  think 
we  get  anywhere  by  such  easy  generalizations. 

The  pedagogy  and  sound  use  of  the  sex  impulses  and  of  the 
personal  and  social  derivatives  from  them  are  a part  of  this  moral 
and  religious  task  and  process.  Only  sound  training  of  ideas,  desires, 
emotions,  attitudes,  and  ideals  in  respect  to  sex  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  total  religious  relation  can  bring  religion  and  sex  into  mutu- 
ally constructive  support. 

Unless  then  the  seminaries  can  make  in  their  course  of  instruc- 
tion a synthesis  of  science  and  religion  for  the  benefit  of  the  min- 
isters, and  furthermore  give  them  an  abiding  confidence  that  such  a 
synthesis  is  important  in  every  phase  of  mod- 
ern moral  and  religious  advance,  the  busy  in- 
dividual minister  has  little  chance  to  acquire 
the  necessary  attitude  and  knowledge  in  his 
active  service;  and  unless  he  does  get  it  he  is 
greatly  hindered  as  a community  leader  in  re- 
spect to  the  most  imperious  group  of  impulses  which  human  beings 
have,  and  to  the  most  influential  factor  both  for  good  and  ill  in 
individual  and  social  life. 


The  welding  of 
science  and 
religion  hy  the 
the  seminaries 


